Were there arguments? Undoubtedly. By the time Christmas Eve arrived, it was a dead cert that Great Aunt Mary would prefer BBC Two’s festive celebration from Westminster Cathedral (complete with the puberty-defying nearly-15-year-old Anglesey treble Aled Jones) to Kenny Everett’s reworking of A Christmas Carol on BBC One (louche, anarchic and probably regrettable, with its jokes about a pudding with cystitis and pantomime-style wordplay of the ‘Good golly, Miss Marley?’ variety). And it was 1985, so only 30 per cent of British homes owned a video recorder, making the ‘what to watch’ argument notably fraught in the season of peace and goodwill toward men.
The problem with anticipation is the element of waiting. How long is it since patience was a virtue?
There had been plenty of time to pick your side. The double issue of the Radio Times (price 54p; cover picture the Trotters, Del Boy waving a cigar) had been lying around the drawing room, in the glow of the multicoloured fairy lights, for more than a week.
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